Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Economics

Supervisor

Lochner, Lance J.

2nd Supervisor

Navarro, Salvador

Joint Supervisor

Abstract

My thesis consists of three chapters that contribute to the study of some of the negative consequences of incarceration and their relation with the life-cycle choices of juvenile offenders.

Chapter 2 studies the causal relationship between incarceration and mental health problems. In this chapter, I use different matching estimators to identify the causal effects of incarceration over several dimensions of mental health using data from a survey of juvenile offenders, the Pathways to Desistance (PTD) survey. My findings show that being incarcerated for the first time, between 17 and 18 years old, increases depression by at least 0.18 standard deviations and hostility by at least 0.17 standard deviations. I also find evidence of heterogeneous effects for depression, hostility, and the overall measure of mental health, with bigger impacts on people with low incarceration probability and blacks. I calculate the relation between the deterioration of mental health and changes in criminal activity during the year that followed the treatment period. My results show that depression is associated with an increase of at least 1.62 percentage points in crime while hostility is associated with an increase of at least 1.19 percentage points.

Chapter 3 documents empirical facts about the dynamic interplay between choices and personal capabilities. I estimate the relationship between mental health and self-control, criminal engagement, and human capital accumulation, for the period that spans the transition from adolescence into adulthood. I take advantage of the PTD survey and control for fixed unobserved heterogeneity and an extensive set of covariates that have been absent in the majority of previous studies about the continuity in criminal behaviour. My results suggest that self-control is an important predictor for high school graduation and that mental health problems have a negative association with high school graduation and a positive one with criminal participation. I find strong evidence that personal capabilities are malleable. I provide evidence that the experience of incarceration and the accumulation of criminal experience are associated with higher levels of depression, while the accumulation of experience in the legal sector is associated with improvements over different dimensions of mental health. I find evidence that high school graduation and employment influence the evolution of self-control. My results provide evidence about the returns to criminal experience and incarceration records in the illegal sector.

Motivated by the findings from the previous chapters, Chapter 4 analyses the short- and long-run choices of juvenile offenders. For this purpose, I develop and estimate a dynamic model of employment, schooling, and crime with endogenous human and criminal capital that incorporates the evolution of mental health and self-control. I use this model to gain insight into the ways in which the dynamic interaction between human and criminal capital influences the life-cycle choices of juvenile offenders. My results indicate that criminal capital accumulates at a faster rate than human capital, which reduces the deterrent effects of detention, education, and employment. Further, years of schooling make the most significant contribution to the accumulation of human capital, and lower self-control is associated with incarceration, criminal engagement and unemployment. I also discuss the effects of school and wage subsidies on employment and criminal engagement and find that, depending on the age of the intervention, both policies can generate long-run crime reduction.

Summary for Lay Audience

My thesis consists of three chapters that contribute to the study of some of the negative consequences of incarceration and their relation with the life-cycle choices of juvenile offenders.

Chapter 2 studies the causal relationship between incarceration and mental health problems. My findings show that being incarcerated for the first time, between 17 and 18 years old, increases depression by at least 0.18 standard deviations and hostility by at least 0.17 standard deviations. I also find evidence of heterogeneous effects for depression, hostility, and the overall measure of mental health, with bigger impacts on people with low incarceration probability and blacks. I calculate the relation between the deterioration of mental health and changes in criminal activity during the year that followed the treatment period. My results show that depression is associated with an increase of at least 1.62 percentage points in crime while hostility is associated with an increase of at least 1.19 percentage points.

Chapter 3 documents empirical facts about the dynamic interplay between choices and personal capabilities. I estimate the relationship between mental health and self-control, criminal engagement, and human capital accumulation, for the period that spans the transition from adolescence into adulthood. I take advantage of the PTD survey and control for fixed unobserved heterogeneity and an extensive set of covariates that have been absent in the majority of previous studies about the continuity in criminal behaviour. My results suggest that self-control is an important predictor for high school graduation and that mental health problems have a negative association with high school graduation and a positive one with criminal participation. I find strong evidence that personal capabilities are malleable. I provide evidence that the experience of incarceration and the accumulation of criminal experience are associated with higher levels of depression, while the accumulation of experience in the legal sector is associated with improvements over different dimensions of mental health. I find evidence that high school graduation and employment influence the evolution of self-control. My results provide evidence about the returns to criminal experience and incarceration records in the illegal sector.

Motivated by the findings from the previous chapters, Chapter 4 analyses the short- and long-run choices of juvenile offenders. For this purpose, I develop and estimate a dynamic model of employment, schooling, and crime with endogenous human and criminal capital that incorporates the evolution of mental health and self-control. I use this model to gain insight into the ways in which the dynamic interaction between human and criminal capital influences the life-cycle choices of juvenile offenders. My results indicate that criminal capital accumulates at a faster rate than human capital, which reduces the deterrent effects of detention, education, and employment. Further, years of schooling make the most significant contribution to the accumulation of human capital, and lower self-control is associated with incarceration, criminal engagement and unemployment. I also discuss the effects of school and wage subsidies on employment and criminal engagement and find that, depending on the age of the intervention, both policies can generate long-run crime reduction.

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